Issue (WIWE) status: Submitted, Unpublished

Weak Signal's progress: Nominated

This Weak Signal came from: 
European Research Area (ERA) dimensions

The theme/scheme related to this Weak Signal: 
International S&T Cooperation

The source of this Weak Signal: 
Report

Weak Signal's description: 

Too many regions in Europe opt to compete in the same worldwide or European tournament in the field of biotechnologies or information technologies. This sheep-like behaviour inevitably leads to a collection of subcritical systems and results in an unhealthy uniformisation of the European knowledge base.

The ERA is obviously one step ahead however since regions will no longer be able to take refuge behind their national borders in order to somehow or other maintain an uncompetitive or even mediocre research system.

“Smart specialisation” is the only concept that provides an answer to the problem of how to reconcile polarisation and distribution. If correctly carried out by a large number of regions (see above), “smart specialisation” will gear down the ERA in a way, by creating numerous sub-areas of competition and regional polarisation.